AT&T: Sprint has been lying for months about motives for opposing T-Mobile merger

The already-bloody battle over AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA recently became an all-out war. Sprint has been vocal with its opposition of the merger since day one, and comments from company CEO Dan Hesse on Wednesday may have shed some light on a previously undisclosed reason for Sprint’s stance. “I don’t believe that what the DOJ said in any way, not even a little bit, should be viewed as we want to keep four,” Hesse said at an investor conference. “My view is [the Justice Department] would look at other consolidation very differently.” Hesse went on to suggest that a “very strong argument” could be made that regulators would approve a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. In light of these comments, AT&T has gone on record in stating that Sprint has been lying about its motives for the past several months. Read on for more.

“Yesterday, the CEO of Sprint said the Department of Justice should block AT&T from merging with T-Mobile, but would have good reasons to instead allow Sprint to purchase them,” Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice President of External and Legislative Affairs, said in a statement delivered to BGR via email. “For months Sprint has spoken disingenuously about their motives for opposing AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile. Now, Mr. Hesse’s public musings have made their motives much more clear. That they would act in their own economic interest is not surprising. That they would expect the United States Government to be a willing partner certainly is.”

They may not kill it because somebody will then just buy up the spectrum bandwidth. Which is freally what the fight is over anyway. DT and Verizon own TMo USA

mrsbelpit

Verizon has no stake in T-Mo.

Anonymous

You’d have to be completely devoid of common business acumen to suggest that T-Mobile would be killed off. IT’S A PROFITABLE COMPANY! It’s just not the most profitable and Deutsche Telekom is too proud (EDIT) to license spectrum from 4G wholesalers to get started on LTE.

Michael Scrip

Ok…. maybe kill was a strong word… but why is DT looking to sell a profitable company?

Who initiated this? Did AT&T want more customers and spectrum? Or did DT want to get out of the US market?

Anonymous

@Michael Scrip

DT wants out of the coming implosion that is T-Mobile’s exhausted spectrum. NO ONE knows this better than DT. NO ONE. And the fact that DT would RISK so much in seeking a full acquisition by AT&T shows how DESPARATE those Germans are to isolate itself from the harm brought on by stagnant growth of unavailable spectrum. It’s already clear that consolidation isn’t working well for their currency, so they’d rather sell and invest in US T-Bills and I-Bonds ROFL. T-Mobile is reaching the ceiling of what it’s spectrum can do with HSPA+ potentially being “it” for the mid-term until the US government auctions more wireless spectrum. T-Mobile has done an admirable job of using what it has to actually challenge Big Blue on the GSM side of the coin, but it’s time may be up in a few years with little optimal spectrum available for further innovation for it to move effectively into the LTE market. My comment about using a wholesale 4G provider is completely last resort, but that may be where T-Mobile is left in 2-3 years, and DT sees that now and wants out before creating a potential beast in Clear. Lightsquared is not a threat and will not be. Just ask TerreStar. T-Mobile will lose market share as long as Big Blue and Big Red and maybe even Yellow Snow (Sprint) subsume HSPA+ as strictly an intermittent step. Think about being stuck in an emergency triage room before a REAL solution is found by reaching a physician with the cure (LTE, LTE-Advanced, etc.). Much respect to DT, though. Those Germans are always a few hours ahead ;)

Anonymous

Common myth. DT will not shut down T-Mobile if the merger is denied. All that will happen is that they will wait for another company to make them a good offer. Look for Google to make a play for T-Mobile if the merger is denied (which it should be).

Michael Scrip

So DT would still be looking for someone to buy them… but why?

Everyone is saying TMoUSA is profitable… why is DT looking to sell?

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CW3SETFCKRB5NRLX5QZK3EMRWY Joe

you opinion is jjust that your opinion I have been with ATT and before that Cingular for 12 years have had no reason to leave good support and coverage. Sprint has improved from 12 years ago when friends on sprint would drop calls travelling east to west or vice versa on the main road through my town. SoI dontrust them. Do youwant verizon to buy them either?

Anonymous

No, Verizon is just as bad. It’s like asking if you would rather be ruled by Hitler or Stalin.

Anonymous

Get Six Pack Abs : goo.glYR85Z

Anonymous

thanks

Anonymous

There are a lot of carriers worse than AT&T. Cricket, Metro, blue grass. Etc. AT&T is awesome for me. Don’t base a carrier on the BS you read unless you’ve traveled to every one of their markets and tested their connection. I get 5,000 down and 1,300 up at anytime on my iPhone.

Anonymous

It’s not coverage that’s the issue. It’s the company and their pricing and policies that people have a problem. They really are evil and that’s no hype.

Anonymous

wooow my best friend’s mom makes 77 USD an hour on the computer. she has been out of job for 9 months but last month her check was 7487 USD just working on the computer for a few hours. read about it here CashDone.com

Anonymous

Does Cyber Sex pay that much?

http://twitter.com/GRZLA Grizzly Atoms

Blah, blah, blah. High School drama.

Troll Hunter

troll.

Christian

ass

http://twitter.com/GRZLA Grizzly Atoms

My post was relative to the article at hand, thus NO U TROLL.

Troll Hunter

troll.

Anonymous

Man… I had a nicely phrased and (IMO) insightful phrase without a single piece of HTML in it. Then you tell me that it has to be approved by a moderator?

Anyway: Sprint getting T-Mobile screws us over just as much as AT&T does. It’s just going to take Sprint longer to do, and they might use some lube. For that reason alone, if someone has to get T-Mobile, I’d rather it was Sprint.

Bullet Tooth Tony

Needing approval from a moderator is a kind way of saying “Thank you for your time and effort, but your post fell into the abyss, never to be seen again. Better luck next time.”

Guest

I don’t think Sprint would, if you look at Sprint’s Service plans, the are very close to T-mobile, not only that it would be in Sprint best interest not to screw T-mobile customers, instead to bring them into the fold with the rest of their customers. AT&T and Verizon are so close in bed that when one company raise price on service the other follow and raise their rates (Data tier).

Anonymous

If you look at the changes Sprint’s announced over the last few weeks, it’s evident that they’re becoming more like AT&T and Verizon. They’re just doing it more slowly. If anyone thinks Sprint isn’t going to screw people once T-Mobile’s gone, I got a bridge to sell them.

Anonymous

Cicconi further added, “The U.S. Government should be acting in AT&T’s economic interests. After all, we paid more for it.”

Shmickleickle

AT&T is the worst. First they provide the worst service, then they cap data, now they want to wipe out the competition and charge us more? Come on. At least Sprint cares about their customers.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=25001493 Hank Godwin

Ha. You think a giant corporation like Sprint actually cares about you. Ha.

Anonymous

I don’t think it’s caring about your customers when most of your Customer Service Call Centers are outsourced to third-world countries where English is, at best, a second or third language. While I haven’t anything negative to say about their Voice or Data Network, their Customer dis-Service Call Centers are abysmal!!!!

Anonymous

That’s patently false.

Anonymous

It certainly doesn’t leave a good impression when you call to inquire about service and someone in Bangalore answers the phone.

At least with Verizon and AT&T, I got someone that spoke English and could actually understand what I was asking them.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CW3SETFCKRB5NRLX5QZK3EMRWY Joe

So you think thats why Sprint recently announced that they are capping unlimited at 5GB and will probably be throttling you back to lower speeds before then. This all a fight over bandwidth and who controls it and owns it!

Anonymous

Capping hot spot and tethering bandwidth and not individual cell phones. No mention of throttling, and doubtful they will as there is a whole campaign lambasting other carriers for doing just that.

Get your facts before you give opinions.

Anonymous

Keep dreaming if you think unlimited data isn’t next. Once the iPhone gets on there and you get a lot of data hogs, Sprint won’t have much choice.

What will people say then when Sprint finally does?

Anonymous

there data network has always been garbage. att 3g was only slightly faster than tmo edge where i live in florida, and att had more bars. they are constantly charging for everything and showing the other carriers that you can get away with it. they pulled out the tiered data trick then vzw followed. they sent out letters to people using unlimited data plans and hacked iphones telling customers to stop tethering or they would take away the unlimited data for the phone. they used to strip down android phones and put yahoo as the default brower for android (moto backflip – you might not know that cause the backflip was class A garbage). vzw charges you for everything too but at least they have quality reception and data. hate att, hate iphone. Scroats!

http://www.sk1wbw.wordpress.com Wayne Williams

I remember hearing that Sprint wanted to buy TMobile? Now that they aren’t, I think they just opposed ATT doing it because they couldn’t.

MindURbusinessSprint

Sprint’s ghetto intentions are made known. Typical BS.

They have had nothing but management failures and now they want the US govt to help them compete….

Anonymous

How is that different than the U.S. Government itself and all of its’ ‘management failures’????????

Cer

The U.S. Government occasionally has its citizens’ interests in mind.

Anonymous

*touché*

;)

Anonymous

The U.S. government is a business. Don’t ever think they give a crap about you. I promise you that’s not the case.

Cer

This is a gadget blog. Chill. I said “occasionally”.

Anonymous

Right. They should be more like the financial institutions and auto companies who would never ask the government for help.

Anonymous

As long as I can get a SIM card for unlocked phones (in the US) via T-Mobile/AT&T/Both I’m OK with whatever merging is going on. If the end consumer gets the same (if not better) price range, I don’t see a problem really.

Anonymous

Why would the consumer get a better price if there is only one GSM carrier to choose from? What good is an ulocked phone if you only have one carrier in the United States that can provide service to it? Please think these things through before saying that you don’t see a problem with having only one GSM service provider in the United States.

Kal El

With the amount of money spent Lobbying for this acquisition, i feel like at&t will get t-mobile…with conditions. The way i see it is that TMO is loosing value with each passing quarter & at&t will be forced to divest assets by the DOJ to get TMO. At&t will have to choose between TMO or the Mediaflo Spectrum Purchase from Qualcomm. The big push is coming from Deutsch Telekom. Why you ask? The break up fee is contingent on TMO’s Value. If the value goes down past a certain point, at&t will be able to walk away from the deal without paying TMO anything

Anonymous

It shocks me how many people spell ‘lose’ and ‘losing’, ‘loose’ and ‘loosing’.

Anonymous

hasn’t Hesse been saying all along that they’d like a chance to buy T-mob?

http://about.me/brandonmccall brandonmccall

Shutup, Jim.

Anonymous

so TMO is the high school hottie and ATT/Sprint are the dumb jocks fighting over her?

Anonymous

I can’t wait until they get the iPhone. they are going to do the same thing Verizon did. Wimp out and cap data because they can’t handle it. We’ll see how their networks handle it along with pushing data and voice. What a nightmare that would have been if they got a hold of T-mobile, along with sharing bandwidth with Virgin, Boost, Clear/Comcast, and all others they share with.

Anonymous

When the iPhone comes out to Sprint in October, all will be forgotten.

It’s a mute subject. Neither AT&T or Sprint will be getting their hands on T-Mobile any time soon. Likewise, there’s no way in hell Verizon will be acquiring Sprint either. With our fragile economy, none of these scenarios will fly.

Cer

What does the economy have to do with it? If anything the current state of the economy, where business profits are soaring, would encourage mergers and acquisitions.

Wow

If it is a “mute” subject, how did you hear about it? Maybe one of those moot subjects will come along,

Anonymous

Of course they should ask why is ATT paying so much for T-Mobile, offered a 5.5 Billion payoff if it fails. It is clear to stop Sprint from buying/Merging with T-Mobile in the first place. They were probably in talks and ATT with all thier money said lets make offer double the value and if it fails still pay you. Not to mention the articles about ATT and the money they have been throwing to the political compaigns of the supporters of the deal. As DT investor why wouldn’t you go for that. Of course us customers are the losers in all of this. T-Mobile has pushed for low prices, offers equal data speeds and overrall better customer service.

Anonymous

That’s business. It happens all the time. The investors decide what is ultimately best for the company.

Remember the Qwest tried to buy MCI and offered more money than Verizon did. MCI went with Verizon as they saw them as a better value for the long term longevity of the company because Qwest had so much debt.

If Sprint had a really compelling offer, DT would have taken it. All things considered, AT&T looked like a better fit. The technologies are compatible, T-Mo’s customers would get better coverage with access to more towers, and AT&T is in heck of a lot better financial shape than Sprint is.

Sprint’s just as dirty as AT&T is. It’s trying to use the government so it can buy it instead. I don’t see that. On top of that, they’ll destroy T-Mobile in the process.

I don’t see how you can say one is bad and the other isn’t. Both are going to end up screwing customers in the long term.

Cer

Completely warranted response. The public perception of Sprint is worsening each day.

wireless x

Dah! This isn’t earth shattering news.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/GLBE4EJ7O4LDYDPDRTDHSVFHOY ____

Would we believe the words of known liars like att? Touche att, a liar calling another a liar. att’s corporate motto is to lie to their customers and have done so for years! Lying about their network, lying about building their network and lying about caring about customer experiences.

Anonymous

No matter who owns T-Mo, we’re going to get over-charged anyways :(.

mrsbelpit

It doesn’t matter to me why Sprint is doing this, it just matters that they are. I’d love for T-Mobile to remain T-Mobile, or for someone not in the cellular business already to buy them, but for God’s sake, anybody but AT&T or Verizon. When I first saw rumors of Sprint buying them I was like…no effing way. When it turned out to be AT&T, I was like…Sprint please.

At any rate, the American carriers are all bad choices, but T-Mobile is the least offensive of them all. Sprint used to be close behind them but has lagged significantly in the past 2 weeks.

Anonymous

At&t needs to STOP THE FARCE…Trying to misguide people and mislead people into thinking that this merger will benefit everyone…Time has come that thr truth be exposed. I applaud sprint for STANDING UP AND NOT ALLOWING AT&T to take over the industry with there CRAPPY SERVICE. If this was so much of a lie then why is the DOJ AGAINST THIS MERGER as well as attorney generals of various states..THIS MERGER IS DEAD…I APPLAUD SPRINT FOR THERE STANCE…..

Vanara Hen

Been with Pac Bell> Cingular > ATT …. don’t know what the fuss is all about with ATT, I wish this merger gets through so my area will be on the fast track to LTE….

Anonymous

same here (well since the cingular days). Ive always had great service. being that im a premier customer, the customer service is top notch as well. never had a single issue

Jon

1. Sprint may want to buy T-Mobile.

2. Sprint doesn’t want AT&T to buy T-Mobile because it would be bad for competition and possibly wind up causing Sprint and others to go out of business.

Just because 1 is true it doesn’t make 2 a lie. In fact, 2 is still just as good a reason to deny AT&T from buying T-Mobile as it was yesterday.

http://www.facebook.com/BaronMunchausen0 Aaron Johnson

So Sprint is saying ‘NO’ to the merger.. yet Sprint had a good chance to buy Tmo and passed on it. Deutsche has always wanted to get rid of Tmo USA for a long time (Plus Verizon lately said they want the merger to happen).

So lets say AT&T fails on the merger.. then who is going to save Tmo? Hmm lets try Sprint again? Nope you know AT&T will be there to stop ANY other company to grab Tmo. Then only thing Deutsche might just let Tmo evaporate. And then what.. the Govt will come in a bail them out.. not.

Real simple let the merger happen at least there will still be jobs.. or it fails and no one gets it then more jobs lost. Hmm another way is let the DOJ say ‘ok we approve the merger’ then after it is done the Govt can come back and say ‘guess what.. your too big so we will have to split ya up as a company.’

Anonymous

Wrong, wrong, wrong. T-Mobile will not just go out of business if the merger is denied. DT will wait until another company makes an offer for T-Mobile USA. It may be Sprint, but I doubt it. More likely it will be another company like Comcast (or other cable provider) or Google. As far as jobs go, if AT&T buys T-Mobile there will be thousands of employees that will be let go. Most of them will be people over 40.